On one hand I am somewhat glad I never became a US general.
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Actually. They did offer $100 uber credit for a 1.5hr service the other day since loaners were out and next one due in would have had me waiting at least that long to get it.
I took them up on it and Uber Black to my fave local Brunch joint and back just in time to pick up my car.
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What did you have each way?
You have to use UberX or Comfort to get a Tesla.
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More from C/D: āTeslaās ability to add content and tune its powertrains through over-the-air updates is a perk that no other automaker can offer at this time. When a software flash can add muscle such as this overnight, itās a technology every automaker should be implementingā
They can add power overnight but canāt figure out how to keep puddles out of the dash
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Itās all great until an engineer pushes a bad OTA update and bricks cars. Or the cell signal gets interrupted during the update process and bricks cars. Or the car decides that the best time to implement the update is during a drive and decides to restart while youāre on the freeway.
That would require automotive engineering.
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Thatās not a problem, itās a feature. Theyāre just trying to maintain in cabin humidity while deriving inspiration from the world of architecture and courtyard water features. Clearly this feature will drive their stock price higher.
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The water leaking into the cabin is a common problem, lots of threads about it on the webs. Can you imagine if fords or chevys leaked from driving through a puddle?? And these are cars that cost over $100k!
I canāt imagine the water is good for all those electronics.
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That is not how the updates are done, at least not for Tesla. The phone app pushes you a notification about software update being available. You choose the time when you want the update to be downloaded and installed. The update can only be downloaded when the car is connected to wi-fi. The app also tells you how long the update (download + install) will take and the car cannot be driven while performing the update.
As for bad updates, there are usually few bug fix patches following the major updates but you have the option to wait until the bugs are cleared and download a mature version. In fact there is a setting in the car that gives you the option to to have updates to be pushed to you as they become available or to receive them later.
I used to own a Model S, so I know very well how the updates works. Also as a software engineer I know how updates can go bad due to a myriad of issues. But be sure to browse any Telsa forum for people who bricked their cars on bad updates.
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Update only stationary and on wifi as of latest.
Any more FUD?
I guess my earlier statement wasnāt clear enough. I wasnāt saying that Tesla was going to be pushing bad updates, but if every car maker out there goes out there to push OTA patches there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. Itās a lot easier for the general layman to take the car to the dealership to have their carās ECU / firmware / whatevers updated.
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Iām sure thereās an OTA update for that.
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Easier is relative here. Software updates are software updates, if you do them at home or at the dealer. I will say that neither is fool-proof and thereās pros and cons to each approach. Your vehicle can as easily be bricked by the dealership as well. Take a look at this :
If my car is bricked by update youād better believe Iāll be hounding Tesla to fix it.
Iād rather have a bricked car at a dealership where I could be provided a loaner and the people needed to fix the vehicle are right there, rather than having a bricked car in my garage that would require a tow truck to get to a dealership to be fixed.
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Rest assured no one present at the dealership is going to so much as touch a bricked car. There will always be a ātechā flown in from corporate to not only fix the car, but also to collect data as to why it happened (Iām sure youāve heard of remote logging as a software engineer and the advantages it brings, but sending in a tech is the BMW way I guess hah)
Iām not pro or anti Tesla (own and love BMWs), but as a software engineer myself, I just prefer knowing my car is bricked right away and needs a tow than wait more than a week potentially to be told thereās a ātechā being flown in. You have a preference and so do I, hence my statement
I am pro software though, which ofcourse may be a biased opinion 
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Thatās all well and good, but what happens if power goes out? What happens if the update gets corrupted during transmission/install? Can Tesla rollback an update if it detects a problem?
I honestly donāt know how often any of these things happen in the real world, nor do I know enough about the patches and the possibility of a rollback, but I can say that it seems like If someone farts too hard, my power flickers. Personally, Iād be skeptical of doing OTA updates on something as important as a car, but thatās just me. Iād much rather download the update on a thumb drive, plug it into the car, have the car determine if the update is eligible to install or if thereās a problem and abort. That said, that doesnāt prevent a fubar by the developer that may brick the car, but it would help minimize OTA problems.
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On the OTA updates, the ābest practiceā is:
- total storage ~= 3x update (running os + logs, plus space to download/unpack/verify the update before applying it). Weāve seen with phone updates (OS not Apps) itās possible, but also designed to brick occasionally in the case of cars (āgood enough, can fix in personā)
- for more critical systems or harder to service (think Martian rovers), you truly have an A and B everything: redundant storage, processors, software. You would update B and verify itās working before giving B control of the vehicle to put A in maintenance mode. (This is not how rolling updates are done on distributed systems).
But Iām not here for OTA updates, I came for this:
That ladies and gents is $11,500 in damage to a Model 3.
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